DOWNY WOODPECKER. 
163 
three quarters, and its extent twelve inches ; crown, black ; 
hind head, deep scarlet ; stripe over the eye, white ; nostrils, 
thickly covered with recumbent hairs, or small feathers, of a 
cream colour; these, as in the preceding- species, are thick 
and bushy, as if designed to preserve the forehead from injury 
during the violent action of digging ; the back is black, and 
divided by a lateral strip of white, loose, downy, unwebbed 
feathers ; wings, black, spotted with white ; tail-coverts, rump, 
and four middle feathers of the tail, black ; the other three on 
each side, white, crossed with touches of black; whole under 
parts, as well as the sides of the neck, white ; the latter marked 
with a streak of black, proceeding from the lower mandible, 
exactly as in the Hairy Woodpecker; legs and feet, bluish 
green ; claws, light blue, tipt with black ; tongue formed like 
that of the preceding species, horny towards the tip, where, 
for one-eighth of an inch, it is barbed ; bill, of a bluish horn 
colour, grooved, and wedge-formed, like most of the genus ; 
eye, dark hazel. The female wants the red on the hind head, 
having that part white ; and the breast and belly are of a dirty 
white. 
This, and the two former species, are generally denominated 
Sap-suckers. They have also several other provincial appella- 
tions, equally absurd, which it may, perhaps, be more proper 
to suppress than to sanction by repeating. 
